PITTSBURGH,
PA – “Pittsburghers of the Year.” They’re
the best at what they do. In the January issue, PITTSBURGH magazine
salutes those individuals who embodied excellence on behalf of our
city in 2004 with the “Pittsburgher of the Year” award.

The “Pittsburgher of the Year” award
is bestowed annually on an individual, group or organization whose
accomplishments have
had a huge, positive impact on the region. The award originated in
1986, when the co-recipients were Dr. Wesley Posvar of the University
of Pittsburgh and Dr. Richard Cyert of Carnegie Mellon University.

The award
has come to define what it means to be a Pittsburgher and has provided
PITTSBURGH
magazine with the opportunity to share our
community’s best and brightest with the rest of the city, country
and world.

Past winners have included: the Perry Sextuplets, representing the
children of 2003 (2003); Pittsburgh foundations (2002); Mark Nordenberg
and Jared Cohon (2001); and Martin McGuinn, Carol Brown and Tom O'Brien
(2000). A complete list is included at the end of this press release.

“This year, we decided to divide the winners into four categories:
the Thinkers, the Champions, the Samaritans and the Philanthropist,” said
Betsy Benson, PITTSBURGH magazine publisher/editor. “We felt
that several Pittsburghers in several distinctly different areas deserved
recognition this year.”

In Pittsburgh’s ongoing quest to address the question, “If
this is no longer an industrial town, then what is it?” one obvious
answer that often goes surprisingly unstated is: “It’s
a university town.” Our academically heavyweight city rarely
enjoys the higher-education street credibility boasted by the likes
of Boston and San Francisco—but 2004 might just have had some
positive impact on that situation, as our two largest schools, the
University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, both had alumni
and/or faculty win Nobel Prizes.

Before
becoming the deputy environmental minister of Kenya, Nobel Peace
Prize winner
Wangari Muta Maathai was a biologist who earned
her master’s degree at Pitt in 1966. The first black African
woman to win a Nobel, Maathai founded the “Green Belt Movement,” which
fought throughout the 1970s and ’80s for both environmental conservation
and political freedom in Africa.

Mere weeks
after Maathai’s honor, Carnegie Mellon economics
professor Finn Kydland and his mentor, former CMU professor Edward
Prescott, were awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for their work
in the 1960s and ’70s analyzing the relationship between government
policy and business cycles.

THE CHAMPIONS
Olympic medalists Lauryn Williams and Swin Cash

In a town
know for its sport legends, Lauryn Williams and Swin Cash have set
a first – they
are the first-ever young African-American women to be celebrated
as Pittsburgh
sports heroes.

When Rochester,
Pa., native Lauryn Williams went to Athens as part of the U.S. Olympic
Track & Field team, her hope was a pretty straightforward
one: to run real fast and bring home a medal. She did that—but
she also served as an inspiration to countless athletes and students,
at home and around the nation. Millions more who hadn’t seen
her run in August heard Williams lauded by name in the opening moments
of the first presidential debate in October, when the head of her alma
mater, the University of Miami, was introducing the candidates.

And while fellow Olympian Swin Cash, a McKeesport-born basketball
star who plays for the Detroit Shock, enjoyed the triumph of a gold
medal in Greece, the bigger emotion came three months later, when her
hometown announced it would be renaming its rec center in her honor.

THE SAMARITANS
Pittsburghers who lent a helping hand after the Flood of ’04

When Hurricane Ivan hammered Western Pennsylvania last September,
homeowners and business owners alike suffered millions of dollars worth
of damage. During the weeks that followed, a number of local people,
singularly and in groups, stepped forward to help their neighbors.

Leading
the pack were the men and women of the Salvation Army and the Red
Cross, who
spent the days immediately after the flood distributing
life’s basic necessities—food, water, shelter—to
those who’d been deprived of them. The employees of the Allegheny
Emergency Operations Center, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management
Agency and the Allegheny County Health Department all leapt to work
addressing the most urgent safety and medical crises flood victims
faced. As for the countless neighborhood organizations, churches, charities
and individuals who gave of their own time and money to help rebuild
the lives of those around them—a simple “Thank you” seems
insufficient, but it is incredibly heartfelt.

THE PHILANTHROPIST
Foundation chief and political spouse Teresa Heinz Kerry

Thirty
years ago, in the fall of 1974, the Pittsburgh Symphony Association
held a fashion
gala at which two-dozen local socialites dressed in
perfect historical replicas of American first ladies’ gowns.

In addition
to dresses worn by Martha Washington, Mary Todd Lincoln and Eleanor
Roosevelt, the lineup included an imagined glimpse at an
ultra-modern gown of the sort that might adorn the as-yet undetermined
first lady of 1976. Wearing that gown? None other than Teresa Heinz,
who, exactly three decades later, would be deep in the home stretch
of husband John Kerry’s presidential campaign.

As we
know, Teresa didn’t become the first lady after all—but
she did become the first lady of recent note to remind the nation that
Pittsburgh is worth paying attention to. Her eloquent speeches on the
campaign trail drew attention to the sorts of environmental, cultural
and education issues championed by the Pittsburgh-based Heinz Endowments.
Her position as the subject of many heated media commentaries ensured
constant reinforcement of the fact that even postindustrial Pittsburgh
is a center of Big Money. And her visible presence—sometimes
in glorious tomato-red ensembles—reminded the nation that Heinz
ketchup, in addition to being one of Pittsburgh’s most enduring
legacies, is still the best ketchup on earth.

Teresa
was also named “Pittsburgher of the Year” by PITTSBURGH
magazine in 1994 for philanthropy.

PITTSBURGH
magazine, Pittsburgh’s Number One magazine, keeps
readers connected to a changing region with coverage ranging from
arts and culture, health care and economic development to celebrity
interviews
and family activities. WQED Multimedia’s publishing division
includes PITTSBURGH magazine, WEDDINGS magazine, HOME AND GARDEN
magazine and BEAVER COUNTY magazine. To subscribe, call 1-800-495-READ
or go
to www.wqed.org

WQED Multimedia
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company of WQED tv13, WQEX – your America’s Store channel,
WQED fm89.3, WQEJ fm89.7/Johnstown, a publishing division that includes
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the WQED Education and Community Resource Center.

PITTSBURGHER OF THE YEAR AWARD
FACTS AT A GLANCE

DEBUTED: 1986

PRESENTED BY: PITTSBURGH magazine

SUMMARY:
The "Pittsburgher of the Year" award is bestowed
annually on an individual or organization whose accomplishments have
had a positive and far-reaching impact on the region. The award originated
in 1986 by western Pennsylvania’s premier award-winning PITTSBURGH
magazine, when the co-recipients were Dr. Wesley Posvar of the University
of Pittsburgh and Dr. Richard Cyert of Carnegie Mellon University.

The award
has come to define what it means to be a Pittsburgher and has provided
PITTSBURGH
magazine with the opportunity to share our
community’s best and brightest with the rest of the country and
the world.

PAST WINNERS

1986 -- Dr. Wesley Posvar of the University of Pittsburgh and
Dr. Richard Cyert of Carnegie Mellon University